> Daniel wrote ... I don't think any useful bridges are built or interesting
progress made by losing faith in or deconstructing HIP. ... I do like
Davitt's subtle differentiation of practice and performance as a way ... to
avoid the idea that one is blessing the audience with musical truth. 

Thanks Daniel! I read your lines as I was about to post again. Only this
time I hope we will be all in a gentlemens' "agreement to disagree". I
intend also to make some matters clear to the students who read this list.

As Davitt says, there is more than one approach to the interpretation of
early music. 

Let me firts  stress that ancient treatises never prescribed a "mechanical"
way of playing. In this exchange we have mentioned inégales and ornaments.
French musicians tell us that inégales belong to some pieces, some passages,
with some degree of inégalité. Or else that trills and mordents begin always
on the beat, but can have varying speed and length. In both cases, a
significant variability is left to (and expected from) the player. 

Up to this point we all agree. But it is obvious that there are different
schools of thoughts about how to convert these notions into performance
practice.

INFORMED PRACTICE

As properly described by Davitt, in this approach we should study the
ancient and modern literature in order to know how the composers and
musicians of bygone eras performed their pieces. Then we should feel free to
follow or not their manners. For example in Baroque French music, where we
find a passage where we know they played inégales, we should feel free to
play égales if we prefer so. Similarly, although trills were meant to be
performed always on the beat, we should feel free to play some of them
before the beat. Albeit keeping in mind ancient customs as useful tools, our
aim as performers is to convey to the public the music as we feel it
personally, to be expressive without any pretence at "authenticity". 


AUTHENTIC

This is what Harnoncourt, K.Gilbert and Hogwood wrote and practised. Many of
us believe that this approach, continuously updated by new findings, is by
no means passé. We find that we should follow as much as possible the
Baroque manners, including their flexibility. In Baroque French music,
inégales and trills can be played with great variability and expression:
however, if we refrain from inégalité, or else if we play trills before the
beat, our performance strongly departs from the work as conceived by the
composer. Our aim as performers is to convey to the public the full musical
message of the composer, trying to be both expressive and as "authentic" as
possible. 

MODERN

And of course anybody is free to play Baroque music on the modern piano,
surely without any inégales or trills, and perhaps also adding jazz
percussion, why not? Now the aim is to make modern music using Baroque
ideas, with no attempt to reproduce the original work as conceived by the
composer.

And this was the meaning of my original post: as Davitt says, there is no
right or wrong in selecting an approach. What is wrong is to pretend we
adhere to one approach while in practice we follow another one.

Best

CDV



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